Sparked by the decision of a US judge last month to throw out the copyright suit for contributory infringement – a form of secondary liability – the Oscar-winning film-maker said he was retracting his own motion “without prejudice”, which gives him the right to refile the suit at a later date.

Tarantino’s motion states: “This dismissal is made without prejudice, whereby plaintiff may later advance an action and refile a complaint after further investigations to ascertain and plead the identities of additional infringers resulting from Gawker Media’s contributory copyright infringement, by its promotion, aiding and abetting and materially contributing to the dissemination to third parties of unauthorised copies of plaintiff’s copyrighted work.”

The script reading featured Walton Goggins, James Remar, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern and Tarantino’s frequent collaborator Samuel L Jackson. The Hateful Eight has been likened to the director’s early work, including Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and has been described as a story about bounty hunters who transports prisoners through 19th-century Wyoming.